Benchmarks magnify gains; Sensex above 26,200 mark

Indian equity benchmarks extended early gains to continue firm trade in late morning session, hovering near intra-day high level amid a rally in Capital Goods, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas stocks. Sentiments remained bullish after Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed his vision for the Indian state and the economy on Independence Day. A key proposal included the scrapping of the Planning Commission to be replaced by a new institution. Some support also came in from reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 625.18 crore on August 14, 2014. At present, Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 26,200 and 7,800 levels respectively, with gains of over a percentage point. Broader indices too mirroring the same kind of enthusiasm were up with gains of over 1%. However, crisis in Ukraine and mixed trend at other Asian markets amid weekend losses in the US markets are likely to weigh on investor sentiment.

In scrip specific development, shares of Cox and Kings have surged as much as 5% after reporting 27% year on year jump in consolidated operating profit at Rs 351 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2014. Besides, Tata Power was up nearly 3% after the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Comission permitted the company to supply electricity to Mumbai city and parts of the suburbs for a period of 25 years.

On global front, Asian stocks were trading mixed as investors digested weekend developments of a Ukrainian military strike on a Russian convoy. Back home, the market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2287 stocks traded, 1509 stocks advanced, while 689 stocks declined on the BSE. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26201.13 up by 97.90 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 26217.16 and 26075.28. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.05%, while Small cap index gained 1.49%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.85%, Consumer Durables up by 1.41%, Oil & Gas up by 1.33%, Power up by 1.32% and PSU was up by 1.31% while, FMCG down by 0.89%, IT down by 0.52% and TECK down by 0.10% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 3.42%, Tata Motors up by 2.56%, BHEL up by 1.79%, ONGC up by 1.78% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.59%. On the flip side, ITC down by 2.17%, Infosys down by 1.05%, HDFC down by 0.65%, TCS down by 0.58% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.25% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has stated that in order to improve ease of doing business in the country, it has been taking a series of steps that include setting timeline for clearance of applications, de-licensing the manufacturing of many defence products and introduction of e-Biz project for single window clearance.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has stated that the emphasis has been on introduction of information technology and rationalisation and simplification of the existing rules to make governance more efficient, effective, simple and user-friendly. On the recently taken measures, DIPP has stressed that the implementation of eBiz-project will provide a single platform to avail business and investment related services and create an investor centric hub-and-spoke based online single window model for providing clearances and filing compliances. To improve the regulatory business environment, the government has asked all departments and state governments to take measures on priority basis such as mandatory filing of all returns on-line through a unified form. Further, a maximum timeline of 12 weeks has been finalised by Ministry of Home Affairs for grant of security clearance on industrial licence applications.

Further, the department has noted that guidelines have been issued to streamline the processing of applications for grant of extension of validity of industrial license. Process of applying for industrial licence and industrial entrepreneur memorandum has been made online and this service is now available to entrepreneurs on 24x7 basis at the eBiz website, without human interface. Large number of defence products includes parts/components, castings/forgings etc. have been excluded from the purview of industrial licensing.

According to the latest World Bank report annual ‘Doing Business Report’, India has slipped three positions to 134th spot in the latest 'ease of doing business' list, which is topped by Singapore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,823.25 up by 31.55 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 7,826.15 and 7,779.20. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 3.63%, Tata Power up by 3.53%, Tata Motors up by 2.54%, Kotak Bank up by 2.18% and Ambuja Cements up by 1.94%. On the flip side, ITC down by 2.20%, Infosys down by 1.34%, MCDOWELL-N down by 0.95%, TCS down by 0.60% and HDFC down by 0.59% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; KOSPI Index dipped 0.35%, Straits Times dropped by 0.37%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI slipped 0.04%, Hang Seng down by 0.47% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.60%. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 surged by 0.03%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.23% and Shanghai Composite was up by 0.40%.